The Burton / Rosenmeier House

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The Burton/Rosenmeier House is significant architecturally as a notable example of the Classical Revival style in Little Falls and for its associations with its first two inhabitants: The Barney Burton family and later the Rosenmeier family.

Barney Burton was the seventh of eight children born to Isaac and Sarah Burton, Polish immigrants, who settled in Peoria, Illinois, before migrating to Wisconsin. At the age of eighteen he moved to St. Cloud where he went into the clothing business with his brother, Jacob. In 1886 they moved to Little Falls seeking a better location. As the Little Falls community prospered during the "timber boom" years, so did Barney Burton who had dissolved the partnership as his brother moved on to other independent endeavors. He married Sara Deutsch, of Minneapolis, in 1894, and lost her through death at childbirth the following year. In 1898 Barney married a sister of Sara, Josephine Deutsch, a life-long relationship which bore three additional children. Barney Burton, prominent in Little Falls area business activities for more than 50 years, died of a heart attack in 1942. Josephine died in 1953 in Baltimore.

Christian Rosenmeier rose to prominence in the county following his graduation from the U of M Law School, as president of his class, in 1906. Initially settling at Royalton, he established a law office and married Linda Bakken, a teacher associate from his first vocation. They had three children. Christian relocated to Little Falls about 1914, following his election as county attorney.

In 1920, he resigned this post to become a vice-president of the American National Bank of Little Falls and the newly-established American Savings and Trust Company. The following year he became president of both operations. Christian and Linda purchased the Burton house in 1921. In 1922 he was elected to be the state senator for the area. At the time of his death in 1932, he was chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. His work in the senate included authoring legislation creating the C.A. Lindbergh State Park at Little Falls, and the National Guard Camp at Fort Ripley. His law practice in Little Falls brought him into an association with his neighbors, Charles A. Weyerhaeuser and Richard D. Musser, who jointly managed the Pine Tree Lumber Company and its related companies.

Christian's son, Gordon, followed in his father's footsteps. Graduating from Stanford University in 1932, and having been admitted to the bar in California, returned to Minnesota and went into his father's law office. In 1940, he was elected to the unexpired term of the late Senator Fred Miller of Little Falls. Gordon Rosenmeier enlisted in the U. S. Navy Air Force in 1942, serving on the USN Command Staff in the South Pacific. At the end of his tour of duty, in 1944, he filed for reelection to the Senate, in absentia, and won an easy victory. He served successive terms in the Minnesota Senate until 1971. During his three decades of service he authored a succession of major bills which have left a lasting impression on the affairs of all Minnesotans.